Senate Bill 1 has drawn headlines describing it as a call to repeal the Common Core State Standards. Filed Wednesday by Senate Education chair Mike Wilson and Senators Givens, Girdler, Seum, and Thayer, the bill does include a process for standards revisions, but it also includes substantive changes to Kentucky assessments, accountability, graduation requirements, program reviews, school councils, and work on teacher growth and effectiveness. It's a big bill.
What follows is a systematic summary of SB 1's major changes. The same information is available here as a downloadable two-page PDF, and the actual text of the bill can be downloaded here.
GOALS AND STANDARDS
FOR WHAT STUDENTS KNOW AND CAN DO
ARTS CAPACITIES
In the list of seven capacities schools are expected to develop for all students, the final capacity will change from “Sufficient grounding in the arts to enable each student to appreciate his or her cultural and historical heritage” to “Sufficient grounding in the arts that: (a) Enables each student to appreciate his or her cultural and historical heritage; or (b) Is a result of an application experience in coursework that incorporates design content, techniques of creativity, and interpretation.”
STANDARDS
In 2017-18 (and at six year intervals after that), standards for language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies will be revised as follows:
• Educators and the public will comment on current standards through a website, with an independent third party collecting and transmitting those comments.
• Advisory panels will review the standards, assessments, and comments and recommend changes for their subject and grade level. Each panel will include six public school teachers and a representative of higher education chosen by the Kentucky Board of Education (KBE).
• Review and development committees will recommend changes to standards and alignment of assessments for their entire subject. Review and development committees will include six public school teachers and two higher education representatives appointed by KBE.
• Educators and the public will comment on the recommendations through a website.
• House and Senate Education committees will review the recommendations.
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• A recommendations committee of three state senators, three state representatives, and three others appointed by the governor will make “final recommendations for implementation to the Kentucky Board of Education” on standards changes.
• KBE will adopt changes to Kentucky’s academic standards.
The bill does not address revisions to standards for arts & humanities and practical living/career studies.
GRADUATION REQUIREMENTS
Students will be able to meet the arts requirement with a “foreign language course, application-oriented career and technical education course, or a computer technology or programming course that incorporates design content, techniques of creativity, and interpretation.”
METHODS FOR CHECKING PROGRESS
TOWARD MEETING GOALS AND STANDARDS
ASSESSMENTS
Language arts, mathematics, and science assessments will continue to be used, as will industry-recognized certifications/licensures/credentials.
A college admission and placement test of English, mathematics, science, and reading will be given in the fall of grade 9 and spring of grade 11, replacing fall of grade 11 use of the ACT.
Students with disabilities who need more than four years to complete high school will not be included in assessment after their fourth year.
Schools and districts will receive copies of each assessment, along with individual test item results for each student and school.
PROGRAM REVIEWS
Program reviews will no longer be required. The bill contains no provisions to check the quality of student learning opportunities in arts and humanities, practical living/vocational studies, sustained writing or world languages/global competence.
TEACHER EFFECTIVENESS
Local districts will have greater control of their professional growth and effectiveness systems. The Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) will set a framework for district use but no longer gather data or conduct site visits. Student growth will not be part of the framework.
ACCOUNTABILITY STEPS TO ENSURE PROGRESS
TOWARD GOALS AND STANDARDS
ACCOUNTABILITY CLASSIFICATIONS
In classifying schools, the greatest weight will be given to schools’ growth over three years as compared to a band of schools. That band will be “a group of Kentucky schools at the same level that have similar student demographics, percentages of exceptional children and youth [as defined in state law], percentages of limited English proficiency students, and mobility rates.”
Weight will also be given to:
• Assessment results
• Progress toward English proficiency for limited English proficiency students
• Elementary and middle schools’ school climate and safety
• High schools’ graduation rates
• High schools’ postsecondary readiness results, including college admission and placement exams, industry-recognized certifications/licensures/credentials, postsecondary credits earned in high school, and data on graduates going on to postsecondary education will be added. Added credit will be given for postsecondary enrollment by low-income students and for industry certifications/licensures/credentials in high demand fields.
• Any other factors required by federal law.
Student growth scores, program reviews, and professional growth and effectiveness data will no longer be used for accountability.
FOCUS SCHOOLS
Focus schools will be schools with three years of graduation rates below 68% or three years of low performance by a student group (male/female students, students with/without disabilities, students with/without English proficiency, minority/nonminority students, and students eligible/not eligible free and reduced-price lunches). Focus schools will revise their school improvement plans with district assistance.
INITIAL INTERVENTION SCHOOLS
Initial intervention schools will be the lowest-performing twenty-five percent (25%) of schools at each level that fail to meet state accountability targets for three years. At those schools, the superintendent will select the principal with school council input, and
* KRS 160.380(1)(d) says: “ ’Vacancy’ means any certified position opening created by the resignation, dismissal, nonrenewal of contract, transfer, or death of a certified staff member of a local school district, or a new position created in a local school district for which certification is required. However, if an employer-employee bargained contract contains procedures for filling certified position openings created by the resignation, dismissal, nonrenewal of contract, transfer, or death of a certified staff member, or creation of a new position for which certification is required, a vacancy shall not exist, unless certified positions remain open after compliance with those procedures.”
PRIORITY SCHOOLS
Priority schools will be schools with results in the lowest five percent at each level that fail to meet state accountability targets for three years.
An external audit team will analyze each priority school, reporting causes of low performance, assessment of on principal’s capacity and interaction with superintendent and central office, recommendations on turnaround process for school and recommendations on turnaround principles and strategies for superintendent. The local board of education will hire that team.
After the audit, each priority school will go through the following process:
• A turnaround team will be hired to provide training support. The local board will also hire that team based on bids by nonprofit external management organizations.
• An advisory leadership team representing staff and parents will be created.
• The school council’s powers will be transferred to the superintendent. If the school moves out of priority classification for two years, the local board may restore the council’s powers.
• The superintendent will be able to reassign the principal and other certified staff to comparable positions elsewhere in the district and to hire a new principal after consulting the turnaround team, parents, certified staff, and classified staff.
• The principal, working with the turnaround team and advisory leadership team, will propose short-term and five-year turn around plans. The plan will need approval from the superintendent, receive KDE review and recommendations, and get final approval from the local board.
A school does not leave priority status after four years will be subject to state-level based on KBE regulation, which may include new audit and planning provisions, school improvement funds, and support from highly skilled educators.
ACHIEVEMENT GAP TARGETS
Locally established gap reduction targets will be set for three-year periods (replacing the current targets set for one year at a time).
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* KRS 160.380(1)(d) says: “ ’Vacancy’ means any certified position opening created by the resignation, dismissal, nonrenewal of contract, transfer, or death of a certified staff member of a local school district, or a new position created in a local school district for which certification is required. However, if an employer-employee bargained contract contains procedures for filling certified position openings created by the resignation, dismissal, nonrenewal of contract, transfer, or death of a certified staff member, or creation of a new position for which certification is required, a vacancy shall not exist, unless certified positions remain open after compliance with those procedures.”
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